2010 Jan. 21, Thursday.
I went for a short bike ride this morning to get the paper. Warm (70 by 9:00), but windy. Hard pedaling one way, sailing with the wind on the way back. We went to the bookstore for our morning break, then back home for lunch. After lunch, we went to Wal-Mart to get some plastic storage bins for packing things in and for a special light bulb. The RV uses automotive-type bulbs that have a different kind of connector than a normal bulb. There is a Dairy Queen next to the Wal-Mart, so we just have to stop there! It’s warm today, so a root beer float tasted really good. Home for supper, then watched an interesting show on PBS about Amelia Aerhart. (sp?)

WEATHER: High 82, highest so far this year, about 5 above normal. Low 65. Finally, the furnace gets a rest. Wind up to 20 mph, with gusts up to 30, from the south. This is how it usually goes - a front comes through from the west or northwest with cool winds out of the north or northwest. As the front moves, the main storms usually go over the panhandle area or Tampa area, and on to the east. Soon the wind here is out of the east, and it starts to warm up - a good time to go to the beach. Then it’s out of the south, and it’s warm and humid. Next, it’s out of the west, and starts to cool down - not a good time to go to the beach. The cycle then repeats. Of course, there are variations, like the 2-week cold snap earlier this month. Right now, a small front is moving down from the panhandle where they had bad storms, and it looks like it will stall out just south of Tampa. That’s why it often gets very dry here.

FL NEWS: [The headlines are again about the cold snap we had early in the month.]
(1) “Devastating damage to SW Fla. Farms” D.C. McClure owns 800 acres of dead, useless green tomatoes in LaBelle. They were killed on the morning of Jan. 11 when the temperature dipped in the field to 28 degrees for eight hours. The tomatoes easily fall from the dead vines with the slightest nudge, unfit for salads or hamburgers. The farm is 100% lost. At about $5,000 per acre, McClure is out $4 million. That’s part of a $147 million SW Florida crop loss. A Florida Agriculture Commissioner said he would seek help from Florida’s congressional delegation for the historic freeze that slammed Florida for 10 days. The lowest temperature was at 26 in Immokalee and stayed there for seven hours.
(2) “Turtles back in the swim” At Vanderbilt Beach [north Naples] 16 sea turtles flipper-walked there way toward the Gulf of Mexico. They had been rescued during the extreme cold weather earlier this month and were being released after recovering. The water temperature at Blind Pass dropped from 63.5 on Jan. 2 to 45.8 on Jan. 11. When it drops below 60, turtles start showing signs of stress, and the further below 60 it goes, the worse it gets. Statewide, more than 4,500 cold-stressed turtles were rescued during the cold period, 700 of which died. This is more than 10 times worse than anything that has happened before. The turtles were lethargic, unable to swim or evade boats, predators, or humans. Treating cold-stressed turtles requires a slow warming of their bodies - about 5 degrees a day. Their normal body temperature is 78, and these were coming in to rehab with temperatures in the mid-50s.